Possibly my favourite film - of any kind. If it doesn't make you grin, you may need your pulse checked.

Sorry - I have to be forced by gunpoint to see a musical.

Particularly modern ones. Spending an evening watching Kiss Of The Spider Woman a few years ago was just purgatory. You'll not be shocked to learn that it was the idea of the then-girlfriend to go see it. The only one I've ever watched (on the telly) and really enjoyed was My Fair Lady, even if Audrey Hepburn's lipsynching is a bit obvious.

West Side Story. The one with Kiri and Jose. If you still hate musicals after that, watch Paint Your Wagon, it is the anti-musical musical.

My 13yo niece has developed a love of them and I am all out of recommendations.

Singing in the Rain is easily the best I've seen. The plot is engaging enough they could have made it without songs and still made an entertaining film.

She loved Hair, West Side Story. That's it I'm out of ideas for my niece.

I wouldn't recommend it to somone that young but Cabaret is excellent. The song Tomorrow Belongs to Me is the most chilling thing I've ever seen in a musical.

PS she also loved Rocky Horror

Spinal Tap
The Wicker Man
Cabaret (at a push)

That's it.

to this club. I hate most musicals with my particular bugbear being The Sound of Music and the entire output of Andrew Lloyd Webber.

A strong memory is of having to sit through Starlight Express. Choo Choo indeed.

Well, it has one tune 'Defying Gravity' which I find sublime. Perhaps it's the clever-cleverness of musicals that puts so many off. Also the fact that people simply don't burst into song in real life and so the suspension of disbelief is constantly being broken. Still, though, I'd recommend you give Wicked a go...

It reminds me actually. She's a bit old fashioned, a bit of a technophobe, so a few years back I thought I'd show her the basics of using the internet. Given that she loves musicals, the first thing I showed her was how to google Andrew Lloyd-Webber. So we did that and had a browse of his site and whatnot. Next thing she wanted to look at was Les Miserable, so I just typed in lesmiserable dot com, pressed go, and up popped a rather large gentleman's appendage. Yup, it was that sort of site. Easily the most embarrassing moment myself and my mam have ever shared. I don't think she's 'surfed' since.

Brigadoon - you can just imagine this being covered by Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

are a bit like any other film genre, there are some superb and others awful.

Some Recommendations:
Singin' In The Rain
Cabaret
An American In Paris
Almost anything with Fred and Ginger in it
Almost anything called Golddiggers of 19...
Rocky Horror (it's a parody of 50s B movies, and a very good one at that)
West Side Story

Fred Astaire's willy.

do musicals that feature bands - where the songs etc are performed by musicians rehearsing/playing gigs - count? Or are we talking about people suddenly bursting into song a key points in the plot?

Must agree with cookieboy - Cabaret is a corker, and that Tommorrow Belongs to Me scene says more about the sinister nature of the regime than any number of 'Hitler's Favourite Henchmen' or 'Goering's Girlfriends' on the HIstory Channel.

Music and Performing Arts should generally never be mixed. It's like crossing the streams in Ghostbusters....

is the only musical I'd even consider seeing at the theatre. Possibly Chitty Chitty Bang Bang too, but after that I draw the line.

I like the odd song, but I don't want to watch it being sung on stage.

The Bonzos agree with me...

... and there is only one song in that musical ... (and i don't mean Clint singing to a tree). All together now, "Snow can burn your eyes but only people make you cry..."

I hate musicals too....but I did enjoy Dancer in the Dark (if 'enjoy' is the right word).

Some great music, and the fact that the songs are part of escapist fantasies means you don't suffer the silliness of people just bursting into song in the middle of a conversation.

Cabaret - the songs are all on stage, none of this "hey, lets do the song here in the road" bollocks. Anyone ever tried starting a jam session in a Cash Converters like they do on Fame?

And I found Return To The Forbidden Planet ok.

... (Seven Brides For Seven Brothers particularly), but I did rather like Tim Burton's version of Sweeney Todd, with Johnny Depp & Helena Bonham Carter.

How about approaching musicals in easy-to-manage, bite-size chunks?

You could start by just reading lyrics. I would put forward three songs from "West Side Story" as having some of the best lyrics ever written in any genre of music - and all still so relevant:
"America" - the wittiest description of the immigrant experience ever written: http://bit.ly/92VUEi
"Gee, Officer Krupke" - the wittiest description ever written of society's ongoing attempts to deal with the problem of "youths": http://bit.ly/a85mtS
"Somewhere" - one of the world's greatest songs of love and yearning: http://bit.ly/9fKrex

(Of course, like any lyrics these work much better when performed - and acted by the full cast - but I only got into The Smiths by reading Morrissey on the page, so it's worth a try).

Then listen to an instrumental version of the "West Side Story" score - it's the greatest of all the musicals.
Then try and put them together, perhaps still allowing yourself to cover your eyes at cheesy moments.

If this doesn't work, go to a theatre and see "The Producers" (not sure where in the world it's on at the moment). It pretty much takes the mickey out of the whole genre. Do NOT watch the film of the stage version.

Les Parapluies de Cherbourg?

My appreciation of musicals tends to range from "dislike" to "I hate this film so much that I'm going to walk out of the cinema for the first time in my life, then I'm going to hunt down Baz Luhrman and burn him at the stake." Yep, that was Moulin Rouge. For some reason, I didn't learn, and went to see Chicago, figuring that as it had just one the best picture oscar, it might be okay. Wrong. Second-ever cinema walkout ensued.

Anyway, I've watched the Jungle Book many times with my daughter, and I adore it. Does it count as a musical? I'd bet that, whether or not it does, it contains more (in both senses) memorable songs than a good many bona fide "musicals".

the answer is Joss Whedon. The Buffy musical episode 'Once More With Feeling' had a good reason (within the show's premise) for the cast to break into song periodically. Said songs were funny, sad, all the things you would want.
His 'Dr Horrible's Musical Blog' is also a fantastic piece of work - the songs & performances are the opposite of cheesy & the lyrics actually contribute to & advance the storyline.

Always love the ones where the music tears unashamedly at the heartstrings (and tearducts).

Nothing like a happy tale of Russian pogroms to pass an afternoon with a box of tissues:

Or you could try Sweet Charity. Was going to link to The Rhythm of Life, but on re-watching, realised it's exactly the sort of ersatz Hollywood interpretation of the 1960's that any musical hater would loathe.

So just go for broke with Meet me in St Louis. Also got the added bonus of the best child actor, ever.

So it's Cabaret and Westside Story on the wishlist. I'd never considered Disney cartoons to be musicals. I do remember enjoying Paint Your wagon, but boy is it long. If they cut out the songs (apart from wandrin' Star and Can of Beans and I Talk to the trees) it would be a great film.
I'm still not wholly convinced mind, but great to see the Word has so many camp contributors.

... because it's got plenty of top tunes by Tom Waits on it.

I like West Side Story, Singin' In The Rain, On The Town etc for example.

A contemporary musical could be the film Once which those who don't like musicals always seem to enjoy when I show it to them.

I love all music generally except for Country and Irish which is crap !!

Musicals - there's good and bad ones (generally)

Good = up to mid late 60's Broadway/West End e.g. West Side Story, Oliver, Calamity Jane etc
Bad Ones - after that (with The exception of Mary Poppins, Wicked etc which are more in the tradition)

Just saw West Side Story (riveting) and Mary Poppins (Magical) on Broadway recently and the whole experience was fantastic.

I amd Secretary of a musical theatre group in Northern Ireland and we do a musical a year, last year Oliver! (which was brilliant to do) and this May Sweet Charity (Story by Neil Simon and originallystaged and choreographed by Bob Fosse) which has great numbers in it e.g. Rhythm of Life (remember Sammy Davis Junior's version) , Hey Big Spender (see Shirley Bassey) etc.

It all boils down to a good story, well constructed songs , great choreography and a solida , imaginative Director.

There are a few good musicals out there, particularly: Singin' In The Rain, Mary Poppins, The Sound Of Music, An American In Paris, High Society, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Oliver!, and Scrooge.

A Hard Day's Night was an entertaining musical, but nobody seems to regard it as such!

For this song alone

...Blackpool.

I don't like most musicals but I loved this.

Oh Lord, please don't get me started, my hatred of this fillum knows no bounds!

is far too keen on musicals for my liking, even the girls, aged 16 and 5, are being slowly indoctrinated.
Hairspray, Les Mis, Wicked, Billy Elliott - I have adroitly managed to avoid accompanying them to see them all in the last 12 months and was immensely relieved last month when we found out the local Guildhall had sold out for Chicago starring Marti Pellow
Junior Preston74 (Olivia, aged 5) was taken to We Will Rock You last year and loved every minute of it. For decades I never dared admit to a slight liking for Queen as I had a best mate through school who hated them with a vengeance and wouldn't have spoken to me had I even hummed along to Crazy Little Thing Called Love - but I can't countenance the thought of seeing people who are not actually Queen sing even their their better numbers in a flimsy plot slung together by Ben Elton, who I really can't abide
Having said all that, me & Mrs P74 went to see Cabaret at Studio 54 in Manhattan on the eve of our wedding in 2004 and it was thoroughly brilliant - Jon Secada played the MC and Tom Bosley was in it too.
I was gutted to find out that Sally Bowles had been played some months earlier by Pretty In Pink honey Molly Ringwald, who my wife looked a bit like when I first met her in 1980!

Chock full of hummable tunes and big production numbers with choreography by Arlene Phillips. Fun for all the family.

top musical.

As a rule of thumb I'd say i hated musicals (I once got dragged to see Les Mis in the West End - christ on a bike that was shite), but there's too many exceptions in the film world (Jungle Book, South Pacific, Paint Your Wagon etc etc) for this to be hard and fast.

I went to see the production of The Black Rider at the Barbican with Marianne Faithfull. That was very good. Tom Waits though, so it was bound to be really.

is a bit of entertaining fluff.
I was in it at school & retain a soft spot for it.

http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/love-never-dies-until-andrew-lloyd...

...to the power of wrong. If you say no to musicals, you say no to this life affirming blast of pre-rock and roll excitement from 1941; there really ISN'T that much that happened after Elvis that has been this raw or exciting:

and as well as missing out on "Hellzapoppin'" you lose the confident, urbane "Top Hat", the dark Joycean wonder of "Meet Me In St Louis", the blast of fresh air that was "Oklahoma" and you never get to see "Gold Diggers of 1933", one of the many quite brilliant points of light that helped the US survive the depression.

You say no to a raft of concise, witty, durable and brilliantly written songs and lyrics that may well be remembered long after John and Paul are forgotten, and you turn your back on the one medium that probably defines the US better than any other.

I loathe musicals but I believe this is one. I dont really know, I wasnt listening. Penelope Cruz roams around dressed in very little. Frankly, thats recommendation enough for me.

I am currently writing my university dissertation on sweeney todd so i can assure you that sondheim writes musicals that are worth listening to! sunday in the park with george, merrily we roll along, company, a little night music....all excellent pieces of work. More recently, Jason robert brown is very similar to ben folds and 'the last 5 years' is well worth a look, and duncan sheik's 'spring awakening' was excellent in its recent west end incarnation. Musical theatre is like any other art form, there are good pieces and bad pieces, to say you don't like musicals is equivalent to saying you don't like rock music or hip hop - you cant hate an entire genre!

I don't normally go to this kind of show, but this one I enjoyed from start to finish. It is, of course, based upon the film that starred Guy Pearce and Terence Stamp. This show stars Jason Donovan, who wasn't the strongest performer on stage. A great, trashy, camp, overblown and very funny show. It's on at the Palace Theatre, Shaftsbury Avenue.

is the one for me. The kids are great, it's funny, the songs are brilliant.

The actual musical production and instrumentation on the songs is great as well: the fact that they're sung by adults and lip-synched by kids lends it a surreal quality.

try Little Shop of Horrors, High Society and Beauty and the Beast. Little Shop has Levi Stubbs as a carnivorous plant, High Society has Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby and Beauty and the Beast has singing crockery. It's a broad church, the Musical genre.

Levi sings as a plant:

Louis kicks off High Society:

You'll never have people over without humming this:

is my estimation of the better examples and the bad examples are bad songs made worse by a story line

musicals are the real devil's work